~*Life As I Know It*~: ~*~*Spice Girl*~*~

It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog post......the end of January didn't treat me very well...I didn't feel good for about a week (can't say it was the flu though) and then I rolled my ankle while going to get the mail in the ice and snow and was laid up because of that and I didn't feel like doing anything other than diving into my pile of books. :)

A project I did take on after the holidays was our spice cabinet and refrigerator. After having the refrigerator stuffed with holiday food, I felt it was time to purge, clean and organize it a bit better. Our spice cabinet probably hasn't been touched in 3-4 years and I know there were things in there that needed to be tossed.

I started with the fridge. I emptied it completely. I couldn't believe that what we had in our fridge not only covered our island but a good part of our counter top too, then took out the mats that I have laying down on the shelves (they do help with cleaning) and while those were soaking in the sink, I wiped down the entire inside including both doors.

This is the fridge prior to emptying it - pretty packed and in need of a cleaning. I'm almost embarrassed to show it to you. :)

It was also a good time to get rid of crap that was old or had been forgotten about.

Caveat!!! This project takes WAY longer than you think it does and I had my husband's help....he was washing the various bins, removable shelves and wiping down bottles while I was cleaning the walls and insides of it. I think all in all it was a three hour project.

Above is how it looked after the deep cleaning. Much more manageable and easy to find things than before. I hope we can keep it that way for at least a few months.

Our spice cabinet also needed a purging and re-organizing, so one dreary day I emptied the cabinet completely so I could purge all of the spices, herbs and seasonings that are no longer good.

This is only a tenth of a fraction of what came out of that cabinet. It was ridiculous that we hadn't gone through some of it before now.

After purging, I needed to re-arrange what we had. We know what we use on a regular basis so those items should be front and center. I saw this system at Bed Bath & Beyond and thought I would give it a try.

After sorting and purging what we had in the cabinet, I started to install the Spicy Shelf. The way this cabinet is configured, I would not be stacking them like the illustration of the box.

As you can see from the photo above, the spices and rubs that we use a lot are all located on the bottom shelf. I also have well used spices in a small carousel that fits perfect in the middle of the Spicy Shelf as shown in the photo below.

Baking things such as vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon sticks, etc. are on the second shelf with our supply of salts and peppers. On the third shelf is a round carousel that holds bottles of various smokes and sesame oils, hot sauces that need no refridgeration.

I also turned the back side of the cabinet door into a place to hang all of our measuring cups and measuring spoons.

I found chalkboard vinyl on Amazon and cut it to size to fit the door. I love that it's removable.

I also bought 3M Command hangers that I painted black to blend with the chalkboard surface.

One of the first things I did to the chalkboard vinyl was figure out how I was going to layout my cups and spoons and measurements I wanted to print on the cabinet.